Sponsored by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the event is designed to educate and train the Georgian Armed Forces (GAF) General Staff and exercise a Georgian-led Multinational Brigade Headquarters in planning and conducting a scenario-based military crisis response operation.
"This exercise is the third iteration in a series of NATO exercises in Georgia. Exercises such as NATO-Georgia show the Agency's commitment to education and training, helping NATO Allies and Partners to become more agile in approaching defence, interoperability and shared approaches to international security," said Krzysztof Krysiak, Event Engineer Planner at the NCI Agency.
Agency participants built and configured the kit that held the core services, storage and systems used during the exercise. The Agency also helped local communications and information systems (CIS) staff to integrate NATO systems into their command and control (C2) systems. In addition, the team provided training and mentoring, covering NATO applications to support decision-making.
Six Agency experts deployed between 28 February and 26 March to conduct setup and configuration during the initial testing phase, and provide hands-on support to the training audience during the execution phase of the exercise.
"NCI Agency staff bring their expertise and knowledge gained from supporting NATO-led operations. This provides a mechanism through which lessons learned can be passed on in an effective and educational environment," said Pedro Albano, Senior Scientist at the NCI Agency. "The training and mentoring delivered need to be flexible and reactive to emergent changes. This is not a traditional NATO course delivery – this requires understanding, rapid formulation of solutions and above all, engagement."
The exercise involved personnel from over 20 NATO Allies, Partner Nations and several NATO command headquarters and affiliated centres.